Ireland skipper William Porterfield hailed his team's improvement as they followed up Friday's seven-wicket thumping by England with a creditable display at Lord's in the second and final one-day international of their series.
England ran out 85-run winners at the home of cricket after posting a daunting total of 328 for six, and while Ireland ultimately fell short as they were bowled out for 243, there were stages in the run chase when the visitors were very much in the game.
"I thought we were much improved today," Porterfield said.
"We were very proud how went out there with the ball, and could easily have restricted them to a lower score.
"We kept going while that big partnership was happening, we got (Joe Root and Eoin Morgan) out, but Jonny Bairstow did well at the end and got them to a big total.
"We put up a bit more of a fight with the bat as well - they had to get us out as opposed to giving them a few soft dismissals.
"I knew we were a couple of wickets behind the rate and if we'd have had those wickets in hand coming down to the final 15 overs it could have been very interesting indeed."
Paul Stirling had the English attack on the ropes with a quickfire 48, but his fall saw the Irish response lose momentum as wickets began to tumble.
"Paul got off to a great start but with this attack they keep coming at you, and once you get off to that start you have to capitalise," Porterfield said.
"They were always going to keep coming back at you and they've got wicket-takers throughout the squad. That's a luxury they have but I was proud how we went about it with the bat."
Porterfield got Ireland back into contention with a run-a-ball 82 but the captain fell trying to manufacture a big shot to effectively end the contest.
"I said to Dockers (George Dockrell) that we couldn't let it get above 12.5 an over, it it stayed under that we always have a chance. There wasn't that many overs left so we obviously had to take some calculated risks in those last few overs."
Ireland host New Zealand and Bangladesh in ODIs in Malahide next week, and Porterfield acknowledged that this display will give confidence to the team ahead of those games.
"Having that chance to put things right here was great. It would have been hard to walk away just having Friday's game," he said.
"I think we put a lot of things right today, we just have to keep improving."
